BIO
Monica is passionate about working with and learning from global neighbors who are experiencing forced displacement. She comes to Abara with a background in public health and nonprofit leadership and is eager to cultivate community-wide support for the mission & vision of Abara House.
After working with asylum seekers through her public health nursing coursework, Monica connected with others in this space and served as a founding board member and program director for an asylum-seeker housing non-profit in Fort Worth, DASH Network.
Monica also works as a Nurse Case Manager here in El Paso and is finishing up a Masters of Applied Science in Community-Based Program Planning & Global Health at Johns Hopkins University. As a first generation Colombian-American, Monica is familiar with the tension of holding multiple cultural identities and finds comfort in the beautiful mix of two worlds here in the borderlands.
Monica is married to her husband, Keshav, who is a student at Paul Foster School of Medicine. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her puppy, Nadia, hiking, yoga, and exploring the El Paso food scene.